TOGO president Faure Gnassingbe
has offered his country as the West African staging point for China’s Silk Road
initiative, as countries on the continent begin to warm up to the Asian giant’s
plan to be a major geopolitical player.

“Togo intends to be the
anchor point in West Africa for the New Silk Road initiative supported by China
and which is based on ties between countries through land and maritime
infrastructures,” Gnassingbe said in an interview with Chinese state news agency
Xinhua in the capital Lome.

“Where your heart is, your feet are not reluctant to go.”

The 49-year old is in China for a
state visit at the invitation of his counterpart, president Xi Jinping. He is reportedly accompanied by a 30-strong
delegation of businessmen who will take part in an economic forum dedicated to
Togo.

Gnassingbe said his country
“possesses many advantages to serve as a gateway” for West Africa, he
said, including its geography.

China has for the last decade been highly visible in building Togolese infrastructure from roads and rail to ports, and
Gnassingbe said he wanted to further strengthen the bilateral relationship.
Lome
recently issued a communiqué essentially supporting Beijing’s claim to the
South China Sea, which is disputed by among other countries Vietnam and the
Philippines.

Togo is hoping to develop a corridor that will help improve the
competitiveness of its economy and make it the logistics hub for West Africa, and which would make it attractive to China’s Silk Road project.

Last January, shipping line MSC launched an 11-vessel service
via Port of Lome to and from Asia. Seaintel data suggests that this has
significantly “ramped up” large scale West African transshipment traffic over
the past year.

Xi’s main project

The “One Belt, One Road” (OBOR) initiative,
which comprises the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk
Road, is aimed at building a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia
with Europe and Africa along the ancient Silk Road routes—a quiltwork of paths
and sea lanes that carried trade goods ranging from silk to spices and metals.

Announced
in 2013, it is easily the overriding project for president Xi and sees the Asian country become a global powerhouse by 2049, when the
People’s Republic marks its 100th birthday.

While
it has been more avidly sold in Eurasia, only now is it starting to become
apparent how the Maritime arm of the strategy that branches in
Africa’s direction will shape up.

Early
signs are that the use of sea-lanes and the investment of billions into
deep-water ports along the continent’s Indian ocean seaboard and along the Horn
of Africa will create paths for Chinese goods, technology and firms, helping swell its export markets.

The new trade routes, markets and
energy sources would help grow its economy. Due to the downturn in its growth as it
rebalances its economy, China has upped the pace of implementation.

China is currently set for a military base in the strategically located nation of Djibouti. Packaged as a logistics base, it has all the
signs of the Road clicking into gear.

This month the country agreed to build Sudan’s first atomic reactor, as it looks to expand its technological
footprint abroad.

“The agreement is a step forward for China’s
grand ‘One Belt, One Road’ plan to export technology, including nuclear power
and high-speed railway technologies, to African and European nations,” Shi Yan,
a Shanghai-based analyst at UOB-Kay Hian, told Bloomberg news agency by
phone.

The export of nuclear reactors is seen as a key
pillar towards executing the plan, which according to the UN covers over 4
billion people and 55% of the world’s economic output—and 75% of known energy
reserves.

Because it will finance most of
the infrastructure projects, it will also be able to increase its political
influence along the planned routes, analysts say.

This has seen many countries in
the region ramp up their interest in being pillars for the plan, which would be financed
from among other sources the Silk Road Fund, which was launched in November
2014 with a stated kitty of $40 billion.

African nations are among the at
least 60 countries that have reportedly signed bilateral deals of intent to
partner with China on the plan, according to deputy foreign minister Quian
Hongshen.

Africa’s west

A study of the Silk Road as planned shows it is thin
on the continent’s western seaboard and in northern Africa, and countries there have
been keen from the outset to angle for a piece of the plan.

In December 2015, during the
Forum on China-Africa Cooperation where the project was sold to officials,
Morocco’s leader also pitched for a role.

“I would like… to commend President Xi Jinping
on the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road
initiatives he has launched,” King Mohammed VI said in his speech to the summit in
Johannesburg.

“Given its geographical location, the Kingdom
of Morocco could play a constructive role in extending the Maritime Silk Road,
not only to ‘Atlantic Europe’, but also and especially to West Africa nations,
with whom my country has multi-dimensional ties.”

Battle for regional influence?

In his speech at a recent mega-economic
conference in Yaounde, Cameroon president Paul Biya billed his country’s
strategic position at the crossroads between West and Central Africa, in
addition to its coastline in his pitch to investors, who also included Chinese
representatives.

There are at least five ports on
Africa’s western coastline that have some form of Chinese involvement and which are considered strategic by Beijing, according to the plan. These include those in Tunisia,
Senegal, Gabon and Ghana.

With a number of Central African countries either building brand new ports or upgrading local infrastructure,
Beijing should not be surprised at being propositioned into extending its
maritime plans into Central Africa.

Cameroon’s new deepwater Kribi
port is being built by China. Tunisia’s listing may also have informed the Moroccan monarch’s pitch, and the route’s development could set up the continent for mini races for regional influence.